By
Apr. 8, 2008

With each maddeningly thin envelope, each remorseless rebuff from another top-choice college, Kellen Mandehr died a little death. In search of catharsis, the senior at Newton South High School posted the offending documents on the school’s “Wall of Shame,” a hallway bulletin board blanketed with dozens of college rejection letters.

The movie “21,” which opened last weekend as the No. 1 box office draw in the nation, is a glossy action-adventure movie that adds sex, violence, and some theatrical high living to the plot of the book on which it is based. But readers of the book, the 2002 nonfiction bestseller “Bringing Down the House,” might wonder why any embellishment was necessary.

China dubbed its Olympic torch relay the “Journey of Harmony,” a 21-nation promotional tour for the most expensive Games the world has seen and for a host nation eager to showcase its rising wealth and diplomatic clout.

The head of California’s health department said Monday that the agency planned to sanction the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center after hospital workers improperly viewed the records of more than 60 patients, including the actress Farrah Fawcett and the state’s first lady, Maria Shriver.

The Washington Post won six Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, the second most that any newspaper has won in a year, including awards for reporting that helped define much of the national political dialogue in 2007.

The free ride for American consumers is ending. For two generations, Americans have imported goods produced ever more cheaply from a succession of low-wage countries — first Japan and Korea, then China and now increasingly places like Vietnam and India.

The presence of a high off the New England coast will dominate weather over the next couple of days. As the high moves towards the east, the southerly flow will bring relatively warm temperatures and clear skies that are, at this time of the year, modulated by the relatively cool ocean temperatures (about 40 F). As the air in near contact with the ocean follows the ocean temperature, a pressure gradient across the coast builds up, making a steady and moist sea breeze possible along coastal regions. This “sea breeze” was mostly responsible for the stratocumulus clouds and heavy drizzle observed during the last few days. With a stronger southerly flow, we could expect this low level influence to be less important, specially during Wednesday and Thursday, where temperatures will rise to about 60 F.

Three presidential candidates and two very different views of Iraq will be on full display on Tuesday as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Baghdad, testifies before the Senate in a marathon session of war and White House ambitions.

Securing the nation’s borders is so important, Congress says, that Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, must have the power to ignore any laws that stand in the way of building a border fence. Any laws at all.

By
Apr. 8, 2008

Because of an editing error, Friday’s story “GSC Officers Elected” reported that incoming Graduate Student Council president Oaz Nir is the current editor of <i>Graduate Student News</i>. He was its editor last year. The story also incorrectly reported that the officers had been elected to serve in the 2007–2008 rather than the 2008–2009 school year.

By
Apr. 8, 2008

By
Apr. 8, 2008

The whitewashing of the cast of the movie “21,” based on Ben Mezrich’s best-seller <i>Bringing Down the House</i> is indeed wrong, and almost enough to get me from seeing it. However, unfortunately I got convinced by some friends into spending $8 to go and see it, only to realize that, much worse than the way the whitewashing treats Asians is the picture in which MIT is painted.

Disregarding the aching belly of my slim wallet, I shelled out to see Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks three times on their North American tour (well, okay, one night was compensated, but still). Had all three New York dates not sold out almost instantly, I’d probably have bought tickets for them, too. Did I do it out of fanaticism? For the sake of x-treme journalism? Or did I just have nothing better to do with my time? Regardless of motives, I got to catch three great concerts, each one markedly different from the last despite the unavoidable similarities.

The Engineers pulled out a solid victory over Trinity University on Saturday, leaving with a 7-2 win. A record number of fans were in attendance at the J.B. Carr indoor tennis bubble to cheer them on to their win, including President Susan Hockfield and her husband, Thomas Byrne.

By
Apr. 8, 2008

The men’s gymnastics team finished in sixth place with a score of 310.300 at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship hosted by the U.S. Military Academy this past weekend. In the individual competition, Boris Rasin ’09 placed eighth in the pommel horse (13.300) as Joshua S. Coblenz ’08 captured ninth in the parallel bars (13.150). In addition, Rasin was voted the Most Improved Gymnast by the league’s coaches.

By
Apr. 8, 2008

The MIT women’s water polo team (7-0) earned two easy victories over Bowdoin College and Bates College by scores of 14-1 and 15-2, respectively, this Sunday at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Analiese M. DiConti ’10 led the Engineers with nine goals, scoring over half of her goals in the first quarter to give the team early leads in both matches.

It’s hard having a significant other at a distant school. Maybe not as hard as, say, upgrading your computer to dual-boot BSD, but challenging all the same. Being an ickle freshman with no independent cash flow and a consistent homework load sort of precludes the possibility of regular travel for the time being, and our vacations don’t seem to line up properly, rather like Red Leader’s proton torpedoes. (Case in point: her spring break was three weeks before ours. Curse you, Massachusetts weather that’s only hovering above freezing, even after the vernal equinox!) I continue to be thankful that MIT is so well and fully wired that staying in contact in the electronic age is especially simple here. After all, that’s what the Internet is for, right? Sending enough Facebook music dedications to fill dozens of mix tapes? I’ve actually been several blocks up Mass. Ave. and wondered where the nearest Athena station was, but that’s for another article to address. My comedy well is only so deep, and I need to keep a good tab on what few funny subjects I can manage to conjure.

After I arrived in the United States from studying abroad in Argentina, India, and China last semester, one frequent question I received was, “What was your most memorable experience?” Many amazing events occurred — I rode an elephant bareback in Indian, bicycled to Beijing’s Olympic construction, visited a soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, and experienced locals’ hospitality in every city. However, one particular event stood out above all.